Star Trek: Strange new worlds

[Worffan101]

In Arena, they were asshole ultranationalists, but come on. This is just cartoonish.

Well look at the other modern series, when there's asshole ultranationalists, they're eating somebody.

It's just dumb and I hate it. Trek aliens are supposed to be people, man.

[CharlesPhipps]

It's just dumb and I hate it. Trek aliens are supposed to be people, man.

I think they've chosen the Gorn because they're less developed and they have overused the Klingons and Romulans for TOS' era.

But eating people doesn't make them scarier.

[Al-1701]

It makes them cartoonish.

The episode was solid in terms of being a piece of entertainment, but it's a big thorn in the side of the Trek universe.

My dad is a bit miffed because he played Starfleet Battles in the 80's and 90's and the Gorns and Federation were one of the strongest alliances in known space once the Cestus III incident was ironed out (and they discovered they were both enemies of the Romulans).

[CharlesPhipps]

It makes them cartoonish.

The episode was solid in terms of being a piece of entertainment, but it's a big thorn in the side of the Trek universe.

My dad is a bit miffed because he played Starfleet Battles in the 80's and 90's and the Gorns and Federation were one of the strongest alliances in known space once the Cestus III incident was ironed out (and they discovered they were both enemies of the Romulans).

I don't have a problem with the Gorn being awful aside from the cannibalism because the Gorn DO engage in mass murder of civilians as well as false flag operations to lure people into ambushes.

Fun Fact re: Tabletop RPGs

In STAR TREK: ADVENTURES, they have the events of "Arena" completely misunderstood by the Gorn. The Gorn take the events as the Metrons deciding who will own Cestus III via trial by combat. The Gorn withdraw all claim to the world and inform the Federation of it before stating for them to stop trying to contact them as well as stay the hell away. They also assumed Captain Kirk spared the Gorn captain because he was trying to humiliate him.

In the Star Trek Online tie-in novel, they said the Gorn and humans shared Cestus III until they needed another trial by combat--and did it via baseball.

[Madner Kami]

Making them more nuanced, adding some vices is no bad step. Making them Star Trek's xenomorphic canibalists is just dumb however.

[Al-1701]

They could use mammalian races as slaves on colder worlds they cannot function on due to be cold blooded. They could've done that.

[Madner Kami]

They could use mammalian races as slaves on colder worlds they cannot function on due to be cold blooded. They could've done that.

Yeah, something sensible. Something that makes them a political, military, social, economic or ideoligical threat. Just not something that makes them an existential threat as an inherent part of their baseline survival as a species.

[Frustration]

One of the major points of Star Trek was that things that were alien weren't necessarily our enemies. The episode "Devil in the Dark" was revolutionary for television, because the scary alien was actually a highly intelligent and rational being, a mother, killing in a desperate attempt to protect eggs. The miners weren't truly monsters, either, because once they realized that the metal nodules were actually eggs they were horrified and ceased operations. Communication was the solution to the problem, and it ended with everyone benefitting.

The Gorn in this new series? They act like monsters, they speak only to say monstrous things, and the proper response to them is extermination.

There were a lot of problems with Roddenberry's directions, but he still had a nobler vision than these people can even imagine.

[Thebestoftherest]

Okay that is totally a fair point.

[clearspira]

It's just dumb and I hate it. Trek aliens are supposed to be people, man.

I think they've chosen the Gorn because they're less developed and they have overused the Klingons and Romulans for TOS' era.

But eating people doesn't make them scarier.

I think they chose the Gorn because they look like monsters. Which is so opposite to Gene's vision its unreal. But, lol, I think STD and Picard has already shown us what the modern writers think of Gene's vision.